26 September 2014

Highlighting Sexual Harassment by committing Sexual Harassment

No, that's not an elephant seal, it's Sam Pepper.
Who, you ask? Well, until he posted a video of himself sexually harassing women, I had no idea either.

This 25 year old fussock is apparently well known on Youtube, Vine, and from his days on Big Brother. He posts, among other things, videos of him: kissing random girls on the street, drugging his friend and tying him to a pipe (Saw-esque), asking people their sexual fetishes, and picking up attempting to pick up 'cougars'.

Nice guy, right?

A few days ago he uploaded a video on his Youtube account, titled 'Fake Hand Ass Pinch Prank', which showed him engaging in conversation with young women and pinching their bottoms as soon as they looked away for a second. What added to his creative genius, or so he must have thought, is that he hid his real hand and slipped it back under his over-sized hoodie after committing the act - leaving the victims perplexed. Feigning perplexity himself.

This guy has around 2.5 million subscribers who, for one reason or another, depend upon him for their daily dose of comedy. If he had a shred of integrity or intelligence, I would mention the obligation he has, not only as powerful online personality, but also as a human being, to not exploit defenceless individuals for comedic purposes. But that really goes without saying. I've no doubt a small portion of his mindless followers will go out and pull their own versions of this 'prank' because they will be of the same mind*.

This video typifies the mentality which many people seeking attention and fame and publicity possess. So long as I do something outrageous, I'm bound to get x amount of views and y number of subscribers/followers. Now, this is assuming that people who make videos like this know what they're doing is incredibly stupid and incredibly immoral, but in Sam Pepper's case, I don't think he considered the backlash he was about the be on the end of.



The video was taken down a day after it was posted, but that didn't stop plenty of people voicing their opinions on Twitter.





Some more salient than others


Twitter, Facebook, and just about every other social media outlet imploded with disparagement. The video was finally removed after the Youtube CEO glanced over at her screen to see that a quarter of the Earth's population had reported some guy called Sam Pepper for sexual harassment. That - she must have thought - met the quota required for violating one of the 'terms of service'. One click, and the video was removed. Now she could continue thinking about whether she had enough money to buy Mitt Romney's affection.

That last part is untrue.

I digress.

So then after all of this, he uploads some other video of the same thing being done to a man, as if that would make it OK. That video was also taken down, and so Sam took to Facebook to deliver a wonderful, totally unprompted, completely genuine apology. Actually, he didn't do that.

Unbelievable.

Instead, he made some ridiculous 'concessions'. He mentions that the whole thing was staged, and that the purpose of the videos was to "highlight the difference between abuse towards men and women".

Yeah.

He then realised he was The Riddler, and began tweeting indecipherable messages:
I've no idea what that means.

Anyway, the point I'm getting at is this behaviour is not funny. It's actually rather unfunny, verging on disgusting. It's immoral, and I hope this incident, although possibly besmirching his image beyond repair, has at least made him reflect on himself. Right now, though, whenever anyone sees, reads, or hears about him, they will only think of this latest attention-seeking stunt - at least until he issues an honest apology for his actions.

What good has come from this ordeal can be found by the public's reaction to it. Of course, there are people out there who see nothing wrong with this 'prank', but that's today's society displaying its unbridled honesty. To read the vast majority of people take issue with this video is a show of that innate human solidarity I wrote of a couple of blog posts back. No one, regardless of race, religion, gender, or sexuality, should have to feel victimised, let alone as they're walking down the street in the middle of the day, and certainly not for the purposes of some moron trying to make people laugh on the internet. We're worth more than that.

*The mind of one who holds a cavalier and childish opinion with respect to a serious issue.


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22 September 2014

A Waste of 91 Minutes.


I spent the final stages of this evening watching a film called The Resident. A few minutes before midnight, BBC One implored me - and all other poor souls watching at that time - to stay with them to watch a thriller featuring Christopher Lee and Hilary Swank.  I should state right off the bat that Christopher Lee has around 2 minutes of screen-time throughout the entire film, and in no way significant either. So that was a touch deceiving. Nevertheless, I was unaware at the time and foolishly decided against switching channels.

We start off with Juliet Devereau, a recently divorced surgeon looking for a new apartment. She goes to view a place which turns out not only having a magnificent view of what I assume is Brooklyn Bridge, but also incredibly cheap rent for a place of that size.

"It's thirty-eight"
"Thousand?"
"Hundred"

That's the voice of the landlord, Max. He has that middle-aged, single, nice-guy look about him, but appears slightly reserved from the outset. After a few seconds I thought to myself 'wow, Javier Bardem has really cracked that authentic American sound, I can't remember him being this good'. I was so taken aback that I quickly popped IMDB open on my iPhone and realised, much to my dismay, that the role of Max was in fact played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Easy mistake to make.

He informs her of the lack of telephone reception and gives her the key, before even checking any references or whatever it is that a prudent landlord is supposed to do.

We fleetingly see Christopher Lee's character (Max's grandfather) in the next few scenes and immediately realise his purpose in the story. He's the creepy old-guy down the hall. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. Juliet spends her first few nights in the apartment and we're shown a stalking figure lurking in the shadows on each occasion.

Who could it possibly be?

It doesn't take an astute film-critic to acknowledge that there are only two suspects, and bearing in mind what I said about Christopher Lee 1 minute ago you can perhaps figure out who it is.

We switch back and forth between Juliet at work and Juliet at home. Then we mix it up with Juliet at a social event. It's there that Max 'bumps' into her, and having known him for the best part of 5 minutes, she asks him to walk her home. Cue the guy-walks-girl-back-to-her-apartment scene which culminates, surprisingly, in Max rejecting her advances.

It's around this time that we see Max spying through what seems like a million and one different peep holes scattered creatively around the apartment. Unbeknownst to Juliet, Max is watching her every move.

There's another moment when the two are about to become intimate, and, this time, do. Until, that is, she stops because he's not Jack (her ex) and it feels 'awkward'. He goes into meltdown mode and ends up killing his grandfather for absolutely no reason.

From there, we see Max following Juliet and Jack everywhere they go. His perfect storm of jealousy and rejection cause him to ambush Jack and take his voyeuristic tendencies to the next level.

Max spikes the wine she has each night before sleeping and waits for the effects. He then does the typical creepy-guy thing of smelling her, playing with her hair, and watching her sleep. She wakes up the next morning feeling like someone who has had their wine spiked. Eventually, she becomes suspicious of the late-night creaks coming from the other room and takes steps to install a hidden camera in her bedroom.

The next night, Max enters her bedroom once again but this time with the intention of taking things further. By this stage, Max has the look of a man who's escaped a mental hospital, but returns a couple of hours later because he was always told to 'be home before it gets dark'. He pulls her limp torso up and hugs her, but, as he does, she briefly regains consciousness and catches a blurred glimpse of his face. He panics and injects a needle in the end of her toe before making a quick escape.

Juliet once again wakes up feeling terrible and hurries to get dressed for work. She notices a needle cap on the floor by her bed and takes it into work for analysis. Meanwhile, a battered and broken Jack sends her a text telling her that he'll be ready with a cooked meal when she gets back from work.

Juliet returns from work but Jack isn't there. His shopping is there. His jacket is there. But he's not. She had left him a message as soon as she had found out that there was something seriously suspicious going on in that apartment.

  • An apartment with only one neighbour. 
  • An apartment which has surprisingly cheap rent considering the location/view.
  • An apartment which makes strange noises at night, every night. 
  • An apartment which dramatically increases her body's level of Demerol. 



But who was to know?

She checks her computer to see the new recordings and is left in shock upon witnessing what was being done to her as she slept. Max conveniently enters and cracks open a bottle of wine. She doesn't immediately let on that she knows about him sexually abusing her, but Max - being the professional pervert that he is - already knows that she knows.

The final 15 minutes of the film consist entirely of a cat and mouse game wherein Juliet stabs Max, Max stabs Juliet, Juliet shoots Max with a nail gun, Max punches Juliet, Juliet sneaks up on Max and shoots him a whole lot more with that nail gun. Max pretends to be dead but does that final jump up, clichéd 'aaghhhh' scream before Juliet shoots him once more in the head.

Max dies.

Juliet leaves.

That's it.
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